(CNN) - The new Des Moines Register survey makes one thing clear: Iowa Republicans don't think their favorite potential candidate for the GOP presidential nomination in 2016 could win a national election.

The poll ranked GOP Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, the 2012 Republican vice presidential nominee and chairman of the powerful House Budget Committee, first in favorability among 11 Republicans considering bids for the GOP nomination.

In an interview that aired Sunday on CNN, Secretary of State John Kerry defended the transfer of five Taliban detainees from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in exchange for U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, but even a leading Democratic senator raised questions about the administration’s handling of the case.

Nearly five years after he disappeared in Afghanistan, Bergdahl has ignited a political controversy, with some members of Congress in an uproar over the terms of his release by the Taliban and the secrecy surrounding it.

We’ll get you up to speed on the latest in Washington with a roundup of all things political:

That's the message Sen. Dianne Feinstein conveyed to reporters Sunday, responding to questions about whether President Barack Obama's decision not to inform Congress about swapping five Taliban detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl had any merit.

Washington (CNN) - While most in Washington fret about the potential return of five former Guantanamo detainees to the front lines in Afghanistan, the former head of U.S. operations in the war-torn country says the Taliban is now worse off after the swap for U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl.

Retired Marine Gen. James Mattis, the former chief of the U.S. Central Command, or CENTCOM, said Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union" that President Barack Obama's decision to trade five Taliban hardliners for Bergdahl should give the United States military more latitude to combat the Taliban.

(CNN) - In his first public comments on the issue, Secretary of State John Kerry was unequivocal when discussing the Obama administration's commitment to monitoring the five Taliban figures exchanged for U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl.

"I'm not telling you that they don't have some ability at some point” to return to fighting, Kerry said in an interview that aired Sunday. "But they also have an ability to get killed doing that. And I don't think anybody should doubt the capacity of the United States of America to protect Americans."

CNN's John King and other top political reporters empty out their notebooks each Sunday on "Inside Politics" to reveal five things that will be in the headlines in the days, weeks and months ahead.

Washington (CNN) - An angry GOP Senate leader, a worry of an “ultra-liberal” Hillary Clinton, and a new savior for the California Republican Party? All part of this week’s trip around the ‘Inside Politics’ table to share nuggets from our reporters’ notebooks.